Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-06-23
WESTERN LETTER.

OTrAWA, NAM, June 10, looi'
QED. NoRTHwEsT:-I have Just returned from
Arkansas; the Little Rock "boom" attracted
me there-it was on boom. Now this little
statement don't mean much to theireader; he
must investigate boom to know what it is.
A boom, such as found there, is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. People were absolutely crazy.
The whole city was one immense bucket
shop of speculation. couldn't find any
thing in the city to base it on, so went out
into the country. 1 Itramped into the noun
tains (they call them ''rolling table lands"
in the circulars). After had walked half
day found a shanty in ten minutes. al
so found hospitality and tried to sleep, tried,
tried again. The hordes of Africa are a bag
atelle to the population of single Bear
State bed At daybreak it began to grow
light: this is frequently the case in that lati-
tude. 1t is beautiful agricultural country.
The farmers display the greatest variety of
architectural art. l believe l stated it was
mountainous. There are Gothic farms,
Doric farms: Bay-window farms, Mansard
farms and Gable-end farms. believe the
prevailing style is the Mansard, which for
beauty and durability is unsurpassed. These
farms are mostly built Of solid rock, al
though some of the less pretentious ones are
partly built of red clay.
Farms are high in this section. good
solid rock farm of the Mansard style of
architecture is usually at an elevation of
thousand feet. The supply has been more
than the space could accommodate, and in
order to economise space mansard is often
built above bay-window farm-some times
even on top of the mansard is an attic farm
built almost entirely of blue lime stone and
flint.
Along the railroads the chief agricultural
slopes are tunnels and cuts, and it is a com
mon sight to see an immense tunnel piled
up high above the railroad on either side,
sometimes darkening passing trains for
miles. These farms are said to grow the
finest variety of tunnels in the Southwest
I am told that farther back the farms grow
a good quality of caves and gorges, These
farms have the advantage of a system oi
drainage, acknowledged to be the best in the
world.
The man of the East is looking Westward
/ mean the man with money. If he thinks
he would like architectural farms, advise
him to go to Arkansas. But if he wants rea
estate try some other section. am salts
fed with Kansas-the dirt right here il
Franklin county is good enough for me. II
is cheap, too, twenty-five per cent. cheaper
with churches, school houses, bridges, road
ways and near markets, all provided, thai
it is in isolated regions like that surround
| ing Little Rock, or the far Western "boom'
towns of Kansas. t..
Here they have rolling prairies well water
ed and timbered, with solid rich imperisha
BILE and seemingly bottomless soil. As sa!
the Eastern man is looking Westward-not
only looking, but coming. In fact he is here
This itown of Franklin and its sire town
Ottawa, is over run with him. He has fore
sworn the intoxication of stocks, margin
and other gambling things on which he ha
been drunk for nearly thirty years. He nov
measures values by, and confidently risks in
vestments in real estate. Long ago the peo
pie had their heads turned from the soli
earth. The arbitrary powerl of railroads i
putting things on an artificial basis swep
this country with delirium of ecstati
speculation. But like all big drunks that
now nearly over. 1t was feverish, diseas
ed and healthy, and dangerous craze.
knocked all commercial calculations, an
all rules of political economy, right and lef
1t created fortunes in single hours, bull
cities in single years, and gave the Natio
the doubtful gift of hundreds of millionaire'
Jonah's gourd had not near as rank growt
as the American Nation, and many of il
people have had in growth and wealth tn
last few years. ......
But this storm of watered stocks an
gambling devices of margins and the fair
like creations of real or phantom mines,
nearly over.
The people of the earth are back to fir
principles. In fact they are looking Wes
ward to the elysian of real estate investmen
For heavens sake tell those of them you
paper reaches to invest in dirt, not ston
An undulating Kansas prairie of ten acres,
, worth all the battlemented edge-wise farm
/, of Arkansas in bunch.
E. M. CLARK.